Install openliberty-jakartaee9 with Homebrew

Project links

• Homepage
• Repository
• Upstream docs
• Package manager page

Commands and aliases

• openliberty-jakartaee9

Project history

Open Liberty descends from IBM Liberty, created in 2012 for a smaller, modular application-server model and released as open source in 2017. The project became IBM's public development base for a runtime that implements Jakarta EE and MicroProfile while also underpinning WebSphere Liberty.

Jakarta EE 9 and 9.1 were historically significant because they changed the package namespace from `javax` to `jakarta`. Open Liberty tracked that shift in its features: the Jakarta EE 9.1 platform feature combines the Liberty features for the full platform and uses `<feature>jakartaee-9.1</feature>` in server configuration.

Adoption history

Open Liberty was part of the Jakarta EE 9.1 ratification story: the project stated that its beta was compatible with both the Jakarta EE 9.1 Web Profile and Platform specifications using Java SE 8 and Java SE 11. That positioned Liberty as an early implementation for teams testing the namespace migration before larger fleet moves.

The package's adoption role is therefore migration-oriented. It gives developers a packaged runtime for validating applications, build pipelines, and server.xml feature configuration against the Jakarta EE 9 generation rather than the Java EE 8/Jakarta EE 8 compatibility line.

How it is used

A developer selecting this package is usually dealing with applications or libraries that have moved to the `jakarta.*` APIs. In Open Liberty, enabling the platform pulls in the Jakarta EE Web Profile plus full-platform components such as connectors, messaging, mail, XML binding, XML web services, and application-client support.

The broader Open Liberty workflow supports Maven, Gradle, Docker, and IDE tooling, but the Homebrew formula provides a simple package-manager route for local testing and operations scripts that expect a named runtime package.

Why package nerds care

openliberty-jakartaee9 is a clean example of a package name carrying standards-version semantics. The distinction from openliberty-jakartaee8 is not cosmetic: Jakarta EE 9 is the namespace migration line, so package catalogs need to treat it as a different compatibility target.

It also shows why runtime packages for Java servers can age differently from the upstream project. A formula may be preserved to serve a standards line even while Open Liberty itself keeps releasing newer Jakarta EE platform levels.

Timeline

• 2012: IBM Liberty was created as a small-footprint Java runtime.
• 2017: IBM released the Liberty source as Open Liberty.
• 2020: Open Liberty public beta work exposed early Jakarta EE 9 features.
• 2021: Open Liberty announced Jakarta EE 9.1 beta compatibility for both Web Profile and Platform on Java SE 8 and Java SE 11.
• Open Liberty documentation defines `jakartaee-9.1` as the full Jakarta EE 9.1 Platform convenience feature.

Related projects

• Related projects include Jakarta EE 9.1, the Eclipse Transformer migration tooling, WebSphere Liberty, Open Liberty Web Profile 9, and Open Liberty's Maven, Gradle, and container-image distribution paths.

Sources

• https://formulae.brew.sh/formula/openliberty-jakartaee9
• https://openliberty.io/blog/2020/08/05/jakarta-grpc-beta-20009.html
• https://openliberty.io/blog/2021/05/26/jakarta-ee-9-1-compatibility.html
• https://openliberty.io/blog/2022/09/21/history-maker-projects.html
• https://openliberty.io/docs/latest/reference/diff/jakarta-ee9-feature-updates.html
• https://openliberty.io/docs/latest/reference/feature/jakartaee-9.1.html